Sooo how does this work?

[hong]

So Basicly, you get the (Ex) powers that could happen in real life kind of thing.

That's essentially what it means, yes.

FWIW I think it's a stupid rule, and rather than nerfing the polymorph spells, they should have been bumped up a couple of levels. But that's the by-the-book solution as it stands.

 

[Ds Da Man]

I thought the errated version didn't allow more then the characters standard attacks?

 

[Gromm]

That's essentially what it means, yes.

FWIW I think it's a stupid rule, and rather than nerfing the polymorph spells, they should have been bumped up a couple of levels. But that's the by-the-book solution as it stands.

Its just keeping with the whole "Its always been a 4th level spell" thing. Look at magic missle, its easily a 2nd level spell, but when they tried to change it to have an attack roll or make it 2nd level, the playtester complained and they changed it back.

Every spell in the books that existed previously hasn't change in level or had much of a overall change. Poly self has never allowed for cool "magical" abilities like regeneration and the like, so it still doesn't, only now its complicated by the whole exceptional abilites/ super natural abilities thing.
Ideally Ex abilities were supposed to be "realistic" things like swallowing whole, trample, sonar, etc. But it also came to include regneration and other "magic" abilities, which complicated things.

 

[hong]

Oh, I'm aware of why poly other/self turned out the way they are. I'm just saying that in a parallel universe where legacy concerns and rabid fans aren't an issue, the ideal solution would have been to bump the spells up a few levels.

 

[melkoriii]

OK so the only question I have that has not been answered is:

If the new form as full attacks of (2 Claws+13, Bite +8) How does our polyed fighter do a full attack action?
Recalculate with the fighters BAB. Lets say it’s the same BAB as the Bear so +5

1) The Fighter Bear gets ONLY 2 Claws and a Bite no matter how many attacks his BAB gives him.

2) The Fighter Bear gets Claw attacks in the same manner he would weapon attacks in Human form. (+13)

3) The Fighter Bear gets 2 Claws at +13 and a Bite at +8 for each attack his BAB gives him. So a 6th lvl Fighter would have 4 Claws and 2 Bites.

4) Some Strange combo of some of the above and it was not given anywhere in any of the books/erratas.

 

[Antikinesis]

OK so the only question I have that has not been answered is:

If the new form as full attacks of (2 Claws+13, Bite +8) How does our polyed fighter do a full attack action?
Recalculate with the fighters BAB. Lets say it’s the same BAB as the Bear so +5
. . .

From the SRD:

Natural Weapons: A creature with the Weapon Finesse feat can use its Dexterity modifier on melee attacks with Natural Weapons. The first entry is for the creature's primary weapon. The remaining weapons are secondary and have -5 to the attack bonus, no matter how many there are. Creatures with the Multiattack feat suffer only a -2 penalty to secondary attacks.

I reckon the polymorphed bear in the example gets one claw at +13/+8/+3, another claw at +8, and a bite at +3 (no multiattack feat), at the appropriate damage for the attack types. The extra attacks are kind of like two-weapon fighting, IMHO.

-AK